


It's Lit (like a lightbulb!)

by AdeleDazeem



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Christmas Lights, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, It's just pure fluff, Snowball Fights, Team Feels, Tropes, if i could i would add mistletoe as a CHARACTER, laughing all the way HEY, that's it folks, yes it's that Christmasy cheesy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 08:17:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17117753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdeleDazeem/pseuds/AdeleDazeem
Summary: “Get in, losers, we’re driving around the rich neighborhoods and looking at their extravagant Christmas decorations!”





	It's Lit (like a lightbulb!)

**Author's Note:**

> It's the most fluff-filled time of the yeeEARRRRR.

Detention is just winding down when the note careens across Trini’s desk. She grabs it before it slides off, thankful for the Ranger reflexes when Zack (she checks the reverse trajectory - yes, Zack) launches notes like he’s launching them into orbit, not the few yards between their desks.

She shoots a glare over her shoulder in his general direction before unfolding the paper football. Judging by the colored pencils, the note originated with Billy. He’d drawn swirling, tangled strings of multicolored lights and then looped them across the page to spell ‘Christmas Lights?’

Beneath the surprisingly beautiful drawing is three yeses, each in a different Ranger’s handwriting. There’s a blank left open just for her. She grins. The feeling of being a part of something, a team, a little ‘superhero family’ as Zack likes to call them, still makes her heart feel warm and heavy in her chest. Not that she ever tells them that. She has a reputation to uphold, after all.

Rather than pen her answer she just shoots Billy a smile and a nod. He claps excitedly and then turns back to carefully packing up his pencils and sharpeners. Kim catches her eye over his shoulder and smiles too, whether from Billy’s excitement or Trini’s own smile, she doesn’t know. Then Kim is rolling her eyes, and Trini spins in her chair to look at the cause.

Zack is behind her making obnoxious kissy faces at the two (three, maybe -- if he started while Billy was still looking) of them. Trini whips a pen cap at him. It nails him square in the forehead before he even realizes he’s under attack. The plastic projectile ricochets off wildly, but Jason snatches it out of the air before it gets too far, smothering his own laugh at the look of affront Zack is nursing while he rubs at the faint red mark on his face. He tosses the cap back to Trini easily still grinning. If it had been the other way around, Zack pegging Trini, Jason would have chided him. Trini preens a little before turning to pack up her own desk.

She smooths out Billy’s note -- it’s really more like a work of art, Billy’s so talented -- and presses it carefully into her textbook, marking her place in the chapter. She’ll probably end up hanging it on her wall later. Amongst the pictures and other little brick a brack, she has accumulated over the past few months of their friendship.

Mr. Miller dismisses them a few minutes later, just as the clock strikes noon. Zack is immediately at Trini’s desk, pouting and sighing dramatically. The mark is already gone from his forehead though, so Trini isn’t too worried.

“Why so serious, crazy girl?”

“You’re lucky I didn’t decide to give you a concussion,” she says breezily, swinging her bookbag onto her shoulder and sliding out of the classroom. He’s been particularly insufferable over the past few weeks, ever since he got it in his big dumb head that Trini is harboring a crush on one Kimberly Hart, aka the Pink Ranger, aka their very straight friend. That was the last time she drinks alone with him, damnit.

Jason and Billy and Kim are already waiting for them in the hallway, Billy all but vibrating in place with excitement. “So… Christmas lights?” He asks giddily, rubbing his hands together. He’s got a scarf wrapped high up around his chin though so the words are a little muffled.

Kim reaches up and resituates it, mindful to keep her fingers from brushing his skin. He smiles gratefully at her and she responds, “Christmas lights.”

“We can take my truck,” Jason offers, zipping up his coat. “It’s running like a dream now that Billy’s worked his magic.”

“Shotgun!” Zack yells before Jason even finishes his sentences. He slings an arm around Jason’s shoulders and sticks his tongue out at the rest of them. “You know what that means. DJ Zee is in the hiz _ouse_  tonight.”

Everyone groans.

“Please do not say that ever again,” Kim begs. Trini agrees emphatically.

“Can you at least play something other than dubstep?” Jason asks as they head towards the exit. “My ears still haven’t recovered from your last playlist.”

“Psh. Peasants.”

Trini crosses her arms and stares him down, despite his height. “Christmas music or your DJ-ship is getting revoked.”

“What are you gonna do, crazy girl? Throw something _else_  at my head?”

Jason ducks out from under Zack’s arm as they head out the door into the cold parking lot. “No,” he says, diving to the left and grabs a handful of icy snow. “But I might!”

Zack’s scoff is cut short by the snowball Jason launches at the back of his head. “Some captain, you are!” Zack yells, already rolling up his own snowball. “Hitting your own teammate while his back is turned. Where’s your sense of _honor_?” He emphasizes his point by pegging Jason in the chest.

They’re distracted from their face-off when Kim and Trini hit them both with a snowball each. Then it’s a teamwide scramble, everyone fanning out to claim what’s left of the slushy two-day old snow. The sides fall as they usually do: boys versus girls as Kim and Trini take up position behind Jason’s truck and lay siege to the guys.

Or they do until Trini can’t help herself and drops some snow down the back of Kim’s jacket. Kim screeches and they turn on each other. After that, it’s less of an organized assault, more of a struggling pile of laughing and shouting Rangers as the boys hop the barrier and join their graceless snow wrestling in the patch of grass between Jason’s truck and the stadium.

It ends just as suddenly as it began, all of them jumbled in a heap on the ground laughing and wheezing, and Jason calling for mercy as Zack and Billy dump snow on his face, Trini and Kim laughing behind them. They call a truce and haul Jason up from the slushy ground. They’re all covered in varying degrees of melting snow, cheeks pink from exertion and the cold, but no one seems to mind in the least.

“Hey, if we’re taking your truck, Jason, I have the perfect idea,” Kim says, brushing some snow out of her hair. “What’s the forecast tonight?”

“Snow,” Billy answers. “But not until about ten, based on the radar forecasts from this morning.”

“We should be done by then, anyway,” Jason says. Trini hums in agreement, pulling her beanie back on her head. It had been knocked off in the fray.

Zack grins mischievously and rubs Jason’s head, wildly messing his hair up. “Yeah, can’t leave Kathleen waiting can we?”

Jason shoves Zack off, but his cheeks are still bright pink.

“Oh my god. Don’t tell me you finally Rangered up and asked her out,” Trini crows, punching the boy in the arm approvingly.

“Nope,” Kim sing songs.

Jason doesn’t answer Trini’s confused look, too busy turning away from them and unlocking his truck, throwing his backpack in the back with a purpose. Zack seems pleased as punch to let the boy suffer and beams as he mimics Kim’s “nope.”

It’s Billy who answers her unspoken question, his scarf now firmly back in place after their snowball fight; totally oblivious to Jason’s discomfort. “She stopped him in the hall on the way out of school yesterday and asked him to come to her party tonight,” he says happily.

“Actually,” Zack corrects. “She invited all of us.”

“You were wrapping up your extra credit with Mrs. Kelsey,” Kim says to Trini, which explains why Trini is just now hearing about this.

“Yeah. Nerd,” Zack scoffs. Trini gives him the finger. He continues, unaffected. “Anyway, you totally forgot the best part, Billy. Our fearless leader couldn’t even get an answer out. _Billy_ had to respond for him.”

Billy beams proudly. “Who would have thought I had more game than the captain of the football team?”

“ _Ex_ -captain,” Jason groans from his position, bent over, face pressed into the driver seat cushion.

“Hate to break it to ya, Cap’,” Kim says patting him on the back. “But I saw you work before your fall from grace. Wasn’t any better.”

Trini and Zack just about die laughing.

They settle on meeting at eight. Zack has dinner with his mom of course, and Trini’s brothers have a choir thing she already promised them she would be present for, which gives them plenty of time to finish their previous engagements.

After the holiday concert, she hugs her brothers both, using a modicum of her Ranger strength to pick them up and whirl them around, sending their little, felt elf ears flying. They shriek and make a fuss big at their older sister embarrassing them in front of their classmates, but they’re both grinning from ear to ear under their makeup as she sets them down.

Her mother even looks happy, though she does chastise them all three for making such a scene. Rather than get annoyed, Trini responds by ignoring the whispered rebuke and kissing her brothers soundly on the cheek. They squeal. She can’t help grinning too. Her stepfather wraps an arm around her mother’s shoulder, halting whatever she is about to say, and ushers them towards the car smiling proudly at them all. Trini included.

Her mother insists on dropping Trini off at Kim’s on the way home, stating that, “It’s far too cold for you to walk!”

Trini bites down on her response that maybe she should let her drive the car then. Alpha has been teaching them all about the benefit of choosing their battles. And as Kim’s house comes into view, freedom, bathed in gaudy Christmas decorations, just on the other side of the car door, Trini decides now is not the time.

She is rewarded for her restraint when as she is stepping out of the car. Miguel hands her mittens and her mother says, “Be safe. Make good decisions. And be home by eleven.”

Her stepfather leans over, then, ever the diplomat, and places a hand on her mother’s knee. “It’s not a school night, Maria.” Then he turns to look back at Trini through the open back door and says. “How about be home by 12:30?”

Her mother huffs. “Fine. But still be safe and make deci-”

“Decisions. You got it, mom!” Trini says before closing the back door and bounding up to Kim’s porch.

Kim swings the front door open before her finger even presses the doorbell.

“Jesus,” Trini says, clutching her chest. “I didn’t know we had super hearing, too.”

“Nope,” Kim, who has never met a parent she couldn’t charm, says smiling and waving at Trini’s mom and step-dad over Trini’s shoulder as they pull away from the curb. “I was just waiting by the door.”

Trini chuckles, “Creepy.”

“You say ‘creepy,’ I say charming.’ Who’s to judge?”

Trini is cut off from answering as a familiar red truck pulls up to the curb, the passenger window rolled down, Zack hanging half out of it. “Get in, losers, we’re driving around the rich neighborhoods and looking at their extravagant Christmas decorations!” He calls to them, Santa hat angled jauntily on his head.

Kim leans back into the house and yells, “Mom! Dad! I’m headed out now. Be back later!” She leans over and grabs a pile of quilts and pillows Trini hadn’t noticed sitting just inside the doorway. Kim gives half the bundle to Trini without explanation so she can pull the door closed.

“No offense, Kim,” Jason says, leaning forward to see around Zack. “But isn’t _this_  neighborhood one of the rich ones?”

“Ooh, good point, Jay,” Zack says as he hops out of the truck and pushes his passenger seat forward so they can get into the back with Billy.

“Yes, and as a member of the bourgeoisie, I can assure you my neighbors and I have really outdone ourselves this year,” Kim says walking right past Zack. “So let’s go!”

“Whatcha got there, crazy girls?” Zack asks, peering at the bundle in Trini’s arm as Kim dumps hers into the thankfully dry and clean bed of the truck. Trini shrugs her shoulders, just as clueless as he is. Kim climbs into the bed and motions for Trini to hand her the blankets she has clutched in her arms.

“My parents used to do this with me when we were younger,” Kim explains as she lays down some blankets and positions the pillows up against the cab of the truck. Billy slides open the back window and watches. “They’d get together with one or two of the other families in the neighborhood, round up us kids and pile all into the back of one of the guy’s trucks, bundled up in quilts and coats.” She steps back and admires her work, hands on her hips.

“Nice!” Zack says and makes to jump into the newly laid nest.

Trini blocks him, hand firm on his chest as she pushes him back towards the still open passenger door. “Nuh, uh, pal. You called shotgun. That’s binding.”

“It sure as heck is,” Jason calls from the driver’s seat. “Back in here, DJ Zee!”

Kim leans down and grabs Trini’s outstretched hand, hauling her up into the blankets.

“Fine,” Zack pouts, resituating his seat and sliding back into the truck. He turns back to face the girls through the back window and says, “But you should know you’re missing out. We have hot chocolate in here. Don’t we, boys?”

“Hey, Billy?” Trini asks, shuffling under the quilts and getting fixed. “Can I have some of that hot chocolate?”

“Sure thing!” Billy says, handing the thermos through the window without a second thought.

“You were saying?” Kim asks Zack as she settles in next to Trini.

Zack gapes, eyes swinging disbelievingly between Billy and the girls in the back. Trini can hear Jason laughing in the driver seat.

“Fine. But this means I’m playing my _Alternative_  Christmas Playlist.”

“As long as there’s no dubstep,” Jason says then throws the truck in gear. “We good, ladies?”

Kim shifts around, tucking the blankets tight around her and Trini, then leans back into the pillows behind them. Her body is pressed to Trini’s under the quilts from their shoulders down to their calves. They’re bundled up in jeans and boots and thick sweaters and jackets and still, the closeness has Trini swallowing.

“We’re good!” Kim calls back for both of them. She smiles brightly and wiggles a little, bumping into Trini’s personal space even more. “I’m so excited,” she says to Trini.

“Yeah,” Trini nods a little dumbly, focusing on the heat of Kim’s body next to hers. “Me too.”

It turns out, Kim was not lying. Her neighbors really outdid themselves. Zack has abided by Jason’s dubstep ban for the most part and has been playing Christmas music at a low enough volume that the girls can hear it in the bed of the truck, but they can still all talk over the top of it. Billy has been explaining some of the electro engineering aspects of the more impressive displays. It’s been pretty damn great.

Except that somewhere around the second house Kim latched onto Trini’s mitten-clad hand under the blanket and has been squeezing it in excitement when she sees a house that she likes in particular. Which, in and of itself, is cute. Except Trini hasn’t been able to think straight for lack of a better phrase. The rest of the group has been excitedly rating each house they see and Trini can’t stop thinking about figuring out a way to casually take off her mitten so she can hold Kim’s hand for real.

In between the raucous outbursts (various Rangers disagreeing on whether a house deserves an eight or a five for its progressive use of Jewish _and_  Christmas decorations), when there’s just the sound of the Christmas carols and Jason’s truck filling the air, Kim’s body warm next to Trini’s… Trini can almost pretend it’s a date. Just the two of them snuggled up. And sure, it’s not the kind of bed Trini would like to be snuggling Kim in, but with all of these blankets and pillows back here, it’s pretty damn close.

She has to hand it to Billy. This was a great idea.

About an hour and a half into their trawling down colorfully lit residential roads, the thermos has run empty and Zack declares it is party time. “You’ve been checking your phone every twenty seconds, dude. Let’s _go_.”

“Did you text Kathleen?” Billy asks, leaning forward to look at Jason who does, in fact, have his cell phone open and unlocked on his knee.

Jason clears his throat. “No,” he says sheepishly.

“That would require him to have her number, Billy Boy,” Zack explains, slapping Jason on the back.

“Oh, Jason,” Kim laughs, leaning into Trini’s shoulder so she can twist and yell encouragingly into the cab. “Just think of it as your mission objective tonight, Cap.”

“Do we need to call Alpha for some logistical support?” Trini asks sweetly.

“I don’t think that would help,” Billy says. Zack cackles and reaches a hand back to high five Billy. Trini can hear the groan Jason makes all the way back here.

“Hey,” Kim says to Trini softly. “I’m not sure I’m really feeling a party tonight.”

“Oh,” Trini scans Kim’s face for any sign of discomfort or fatigue. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Kim reassures quickly. Under the blanket, she gives Trini’s hand a squeeze. “Just…” She looks out at the houses passing slowly, smiling softly.

“In the mood to keep it lowkey?” Trini offers.

“God, does that make me sound like a total grandma?” Kim groans, hiding her head in the blankets at Trini’s shoulder.

“Yes,” Trini answers gravely. Kim snorts into the fabric. “But lucky for you, I too am a grandma.”

Kim leans back and looks at Trini. “Yeah?” Kim asks soft smile back in place. Trini nods. Kim grins then. “At least we’re cute grandmas, though, eh?”

Trini’s heart skips a beat. “Yeah,” she says. Then, because it’s hard to focus on anything outside of the way Kim’s eyes look right now as she watches Trini, face dangerously close to her own now, Trini forces herself to pull away and reach over and bang on the side of the truck. “Driver!” She calls imperiously to Jason.

“Yes, my lady?”

“Take us home, my good sir,” Kim says, adopting the same haughty tone as Trini.

“As you wish,” he says without question.

Billy turns to look at them through the open window. “Is everything okay?” He asks sincerely.

“Yeah, Billy,” Trini smiles up at him, feeling Kim’s hand still firmly in her own. “More than okay.”

A few minutes later sees them pulling to a stop in front of Kim’s house. Kim and Trini stand and stretch before rolling up their nest materials. Zack is leaning back out of the passenger window when they hop out of the back, Trini offering Kim her hand to help her down. Kim could probably vault from the back of Jason’s truck to her second story roof without issue if she wanted, but that doesn’t stop her from reaching down and taking Trini’s as she climbs down.

“So what’s the plan, crazy girls?” Zack asks, chin resting on his arms folded on the windowsill.

“I think we’re gonna stay in tonight,” Kim says swinging their interlocked hands between them casually.

Zack clocks the movement before shooting Trini a _look_.

Behind him, Jason is looking at them with concern. “You guys sure you don’t wanna come?” He asks.

“Nah, man. Didn’t you hear them? They’re gonna stay _in_  tonight,” Zack says grinning.

And Trini knows he’s trying to help. She knows he is trying to goad Trini into action, _not_  needlessly make either she or Kim uncomfortable with his comments. But there are times she wishes he wouldn’t help in such a… _Zack_  way. And this is one such instance as Kim lets go of Trini’s hand to apparently brush her hair back from her face. She doesn’t take Trini’s hand again when she finishes, but rather readjusts to have a two-handed grip on the bundle in her arms.

“Well, if you guys are sure, then…” Jason is saying uncertainly.

“We are,” Kim answers. “Really. Now go; parties wait for no man!”

“And please, for godsakes,” Trini leans in to pin Jason with a look. “Try to string a few words together to Kathleen.”

Billy leans forward from the back seat and puts a hand on Jason’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Jason. I can give you some pointers.”

“Thanks, Billy,” he says, clearly pained. Then he turns back to the girls on the sidewalk. “Trini, don’t forget: you have to come over for dinner next Sunday night. Lions versus Seahawks.”

“Like I’d forget," Trini laughs, cheeks pinking slightly. “That’s what I get for telling him I’m a Detroit fan. This man isn’t ever gonna let it drop.”

“Think this is bad, just wait until baseball starts,” Jason grimaces, shaking his head.

They say their goodbyes then and the boys head out, Zack blasting some pump up song to get Jason in the right mindset no doubt.

The truck turns the corner and Kim turns to Trini. “So.”

“So,” Trini echoes, shifting the pile of blankets in her arms. “Now that the Testosterone Trio are gone, whaddya wanna do?”

“Well. The world is our snow-covered oyster,” Kim says grandly and heads up her front walk. “We could: watch Hallmark movies until our eyes bleed candy canes.”

“Physically impossible but still pass,” Trini says, stomping her boots off on the welcome mat.

“Spoilsport,” Kim huffs, shutting her front door. Now that they’re inside, the two girls can hear the TV on in the living room. “Looks like you’re safe for now,” Kim tells Trini as she follows the sound down the hallway.

It’s dark in the living room save for the black and white lights shining from the TV. Kim tiptoes in, Trini following hesitantly behind her. There are two wine glasses on the coffee table and It’s a Wonderful Life is playing on the screen. Kim’s dad lifts a hand in silent greeting, before moving a finger to his lips, to the two girls as they deposit their pallet materials back on the opposite loveseat. The girls see the reason for the gesture as they look over: Kim’s mom is asleep with her head in his lap. Trini feels like they’re intruding, but Kim covers her mouth with her hand to stifle her laugh.

Mr. Hart just rolls his eyes good-naturedly down to his wife who is snoring slightly, just barely audible under the sounds from the movie. “Lightweight,” he whispers, smiling.

Kim goes to stand beside him, next to the arm of the sofa and puts her hand on his shoulder. Trini hangs back, unable to shake the feeling of being an interloper in this foreign pleasantly domestic scene. “Do you need anything?” Kim asks her father quietly.

“A little more wine in my glass couldn’t hurt,” he whispers, causing Kim to grin again. She snags the glasses off the table and heads into the kitchen. Trini following along behind her.

In the kitchen, Kim flips on a light and speaks at normal volume. It makes it a little easier to breathe, Trini finds. “Lightweight, indeed,” Kim says as she lifts the still mostly full bottle of wine to fill her dad’s wine glass. “Mom must have only had half a glass.”

“Like you’re any better,” Trini scoffs, placing Mrs. Hart’s wine glass in the sink carefully. It’s nicer than any of the glassware her parents have at their house.

Kim raises her eyebrow. “Is that a challenge?”

“One that I’ll surely win,” Trini responds, crossing her arms and leaning back against the immaculate granite of the counter.

There are overly ripened bananas and crumbs and unfinished lists strewn across the tiled counters in her own kitchen, the grout irrevocably stained in some places from the last residents. These look like they’ve never even been used. Maybe the reason she feels more at ease in this spacious kitchen is that it feels like something out of a model home, rather than a place where a real, loving family lives.

Across the kitchen, Kim lifts a solitary finger. “You’re on,” she says before backing out of the kitchen towards the living room, holding the wine glass. “Lemme give this to my dad real quick and then you are so on.”

She comes back a few moments later and rounds the island to the cabinets beside the pantry. Without a word, she pulls a fresh thermos from one of the shelves and proceeds to pour a generous amount of the bottle of red wine into it.

Trini’s eyebrows raise. “Your dad won’t notice?”

“He won’t care,” Kim shrugs easily. “This happens every time. Wine puts Mom to sleep better than an Ambien. They never finish a bottle and then it just goes to waste.”

“I thought the whole point of wine was that it could keep forever. Why else do people have those huge cellars?”

Kim screws the lid on the thermos before taking the bottle over to Trini. “It can. Unless it’s been opened. Once a bottle is opened, it’s really only good for a week, though.”

“Huh,” Trini says, running a finger along the label of the wine bottle. “Learn something new every day.”

“Right?” Kim asks, before bringing the bottle to her lips for a sip.

“No, I mean,” Trini starts and has to work to focus on Kim’s eyes, not her now glistening mouth when she lowers the bottle and hands it over to Trini. Trini takes it, their fingers brushing in the pass, and Trini is particularly thankful she thought to remove her mittens earlier. “I never would have guessed you such a nerd,” she says and knocks back a mouthful of the merlot as Kim scoffs.

“There’s a difference between being a nerd and being knowledgeable.”

“Not from where I’m standing there isn’t,” Trini says easily before taking another drink.  
“Yeah, well…” Rather than find a retort, Kim snatches the bottle from Trini’s hands and tips her head back to take a strong gulp, keeping eye contact with Trini as she does.

The eye contact is charged. A challenge crackling between them, now. Whether from the easy banter or Trini’s remark earlier. Trini maintains Kim’s gaze, but out of the corner of her eye she can see the strong line of Kim’s throat moving as she swallows. Trini is thankful for a second time in as many minutes, this time for the counter she is leaning against, which is now surely keeping her weak knees steady.

Kim sets the bottle down on the counter and wipes her mouth off with the back of her hand. She looks triumphant, for whatever reason. Belatedly, Trini realizes it’s because she has finished off the bottle.

“Rude,” Trini grumps, returning her arms to their trademark position: crossed over her chest.

Kim just laughs and rinses out the bottle before putting it in the trash can under the sink as quietly as she can. She dries her hands on a kitchen towel and then grabs Trini’s arm and the thermos before wheeling her back out the front door. “I told my dad we were going for a walk,” she explains, pulling the door closed behind her.

“And he agreed, knowing it was below freezing and dark?” Trini asks as they set off down the walkway and then out onto the sidewalk.

“He thinks most of what I say is a euphemism of some sort,” Kim grimaces and waves vaguely. “So he prefers not to ask too many questions.”

It sounds like a foreign concept to Trini. “My mom thinks most of what I say is a euphemism, too,” Trini says, reaching for the thermos so she can catch up to Kim. “Which is exactly _why_  she asks too many questions.”

Kim bumps Trini with her hip just as she is finishing her sip. She jolts to avoid spilling any of the dark red liquid on herself. “Now who can’t handle their alcohol?” Kim teases.

She shoots Kim a glare. “Cheater.” Kim just laughs.

They walk aimlessly, neither girl really leading as they retrace their path in the truck or set off on side roads they didn’t drive down earlier. The air feels different somehow now that they’re alone. They pass the thermos back and forth, no longer in a rush to outdo each other.

There’s a slight buzz just blurring the edges of Trini’s existence. Kim’s walking close enough to her that their arms touch. Trini feels warm despite the temperature.

Kim still isn’t wearing gloves. She has her far hand shoved in the pocket of her coat, the other bare and gripping the thermos. When Trini takes the thermos for her turn, she shoves her newly free hand deep into her coat pocket. When Trini realizes this she tries to get Kim to take her mittens.

“No,” Kim says, staying Trini’s fingers as they try to slip one mitten off. “Then _you’_ d have cold hands.”

Trini scrunches her eyebrows. “So?”

“So,” Kim says laughing. “Keep your mittens. It’s my fault for not getting any _either_  time we were at my house.”

But Trini is just as stubborn as Kim is. So she steps abruptly in front of Kim, pulling them to a halt. She sets the thermos on the concrete and then before Kim can argue, she pulls Kim’s hands from her pockets. Now that they’re standing still Trini feels the wine more strongly. It bolsters her. She cups Kim’s hands between her own and brings them close to her face. Kim just watches her silently, seemingly entranced, as Trini proceeds to blow her warm breath over the cold digits.

Once she’s satisfied the other girl won’t be developing frostbite any time soon, she stops. The wine really must be getting to her too, because rather than simply drop Kim’s hands, to free her own, she keeps both held to her chest with one hand, sheltered from the cold wind against her jacket; she uses her teeth to pull off of the mitten of her free hand.

Kim still hasn’t moved. Which makes it all the easier for Trini to work the loose mitten over her right hand. Once it’s covered, she drops Kim’s hand. Kim lets it hang dumbly beside her for a moment. Trini leans down and swipes the thermos from the sidewalk.

At Kim’s vacant stare, Kim quirks an eyebrow and shoves their two bare hands into her coat pocket. “What?” she asks, defaulting back to the hard tone she used on Kim so many months ago in the quarry.

Her father did this when she was younger. She’s since taught the twins this. In Michigan, winters were no joke. But now she is beginning to rethink her decision now that Kim is looking down at her coat pocket, still uncharacteristically quiet.

Trini is just about to release Kim’s hand -- let her put it in her own coat pocket if she wanted to, or do whatever the heck she wanted with her own hand -- when Kim seems to snap out of whatever her haze was. She looks back up at Trini with a soft smile. “Smart,” she says, then continues walking down the street like they hadn’t just had an inscrutable moment of some sort.

“Well,” Trini swallows. “You know what they say: ‘you learn something new every day.’”

“I have heard that,” Kim grins over at her.

In Trini’s coat pocket, Kim readjusts her grip and threads their fingers together. She leaves them in Trini’s coat. Kim’s hand is still cold in comparison to Trini’s. Cold and dry. The skin along her knuckles is rough from the dry winter air. This small detail surprises Trini. She imagined Trini would be the kind of girly girl who would lotion religiously, moisturize with expensive, nice smelling creams and balms. It’s such a contrast to the smooth skin of Trini’s fingers she can’t help but rub her thumb across it.

She’s saved from wondering what other assumptions she might have gotten wrong about her teammate when Kim suddenly pulls them to a stop and excitedly exclaims, “What is that? A giant inflatable pot leaf?”

It’s so surprising it takes Tirni a moment to wrap her mind around the words. “Pot?” She asks dubiously, then she looks to where Trini’s right hand is pointing across the street. She squints. “I think it’s supposed to be mistletoe,” she laughs. “Marijuana plants don’t have _berries_.”

“Well, how am I supposed to know?”

“I dunno, context clues maybe? Pot isn’t exactly a revered and celebrated Christmas tradition.”

“Shut up and come ‘ere, you little Christmas Cop,” Kim says and pulls Trini towards her by their connected hands. Trini looks panicked for a second, but Kim doesn’t let that deter her from bestowing the most obnoxious, smacking kiss on Trini’s cheek she can muster.

“What the fuck, Kim,” Trini says, surprised, before trying in vain to wipe the lipstick from her cheek. Kim just grins merrily at her. “Pretty sure you have to be _under_  mistletoe in order to kiss someone,” Trini grumps.

There’s a smile threatening to break out on her face, though — the apple of her cheek, right where Kim’s lipstick is still proudly smeared, rounding in the telltale sign the shorter girl is about to break.

For the briefest second, Kim sways forward on her toes once more, and Trini is certain she’s about to strike again. But she straightens at the last moment and just grins down at Trini and says, “That’s only for kissing on the lips. Standing _near_  the mistletoe isn’t as powerful. It’s only good for a kiss on the cheek. So be thankful.”

Trini snorts to cover the wild rabbit beating of her heart. “Yeah, _okay_. Whatever you say, crazy girl.”

“Pretty sure that’s your nickname.”

“Pretty sure it suits you better right now.”

“Kathleen’s house is just another few blocks over,” Kim says breezily. “We could go find the boys and ask Zack if you want.”

Trini steers Kim back the way they had come -- away from the party. “Nah. You’re not in the mood for a party tonight, remember? Best to just take my word for it.”

The wine is gone and Trini carries the empty thermos tucked in the crook of her arm. She and Kim lean against each other slightly as they walk, their breath twin smudges in the dark air. It’s late now and some of the houses have begun to turn their lights off, so Kim steers them back towards her house. As they turn onto the Hart’s street, there’s only one house with its lights still lit.

Trini has to be home in less than thirty minutes, but she still finds herself dragging her feet. Kim doesn’t seem to mind, keeping the slow pace with her, their hands warm and pressed together in Trini’s coat pocket.

They’re passing under a tree whose leaves are doing their damndest to stubbornly hang on despite the turn in the weather when Kim coasts to a crawl. “So,” Kim says quietly. “Mistletoe always has red berries, huh?”

“Uh,” Trini follows Kim’s eyes to the dark, rustling branches above them. “I think, yeah.”

“Oh,” Kim says.

Kim’s next step is a little quicker than the last and Trini knows she’s missed a cue somewhere. “But, um,” She fumbles. “I’m no botanist.”

“Oh.” Kim is back to a crawl.

Trini watches her face as closely as she can without _looking_  like she’s watching the other girl’s profile for any minute change like a hawk watches a field for a mouse’s movements. Trini’s thankful for the slow pace because she has no idea what might be on the ground in front of them. Her eyes may be facing forward, but every atom in her body is reaching out to the girl beside her. If she were any more attuned to Kim, she’d be melting into her. That could just be the wine talking--

She abandons all thought of that as Kim swallows and opens her mouth to speak again. “Um. Trini?”

“Yeah?” Trini answers, praying for her voice to remain steady on the four short letters.

They’re fully stopped now. Kim’s hand feels clammy against Trini’s. Or maybe it’s the other way around. It’s hard to tell. Merging atoms and all that.

Kim’s hand moves in Trini’s pocket and for one impressively long moment their breath hangs frozen in mid-air and Trini is certain the taller girl is about to pull away from her. But then her fingers settle, still firmly between Trini’s and the Latina realizes she was only readjusting her grip, not preparing to run screaming down the block away from Trini like the dark recesses of her mind were suggesting.

“Um,” Kim interrupts Trini silently thanking every deity available. Her free hand is swinging nervously beside her. “Do you think that maybe some of _these_  leaves might be mistletoe?”

Trini studies the dark branches above them and swallows. “It’s possible.”

“Oh.”

The last lights on the block cut out. The street is shrouded in darkness now. Trini can see Kim perfectly though as she steps the tiny half step forward into her space. There’s no furtive glancing out of the corner of her eye, Trini’s stare is locked firmly on Kim’s face a scant few inches in front of her own.

“But, if it isn’t,” Trini says and Kim’s gaze ricochets from her lips up to her eyes. Trini swallows. Shrugs her shoulders. “I wouldn’t say anything.”

“Oh.”

Kim closes the distance between them. Her nose is cold as it bumps against Trini’s, then she corrects and it’s just cold lips against slightly chapped ones. Kim reaches up with her mittened hand, running the coarse fabric along her jaw, and kisses her again, this time a little deeper. Trini all but falls against her, the thermos pressed between their bodies.

Dimly, she is aware of her phone ringing in her pocket. Kim presses a sweet little kiss to Trini’s upper lip and pulls back a hair. It takes a second for Trini’s eyes to open before she fumbles for her phone. It’s Zack. Trini has never wanted to kill the tall boy more.

“You better have a damn good reason for calling,” she says to the Black Ranger as she answers. Kim bites her lip and chuckles, looking down.

There’s loud music in the background on his end, which tells Trini the boys must still be at the party. “Boy, do I ever,” Zack yells, which tells Trini the boys also must have found alcohol of their own.

“Well?” She huffs impatiently.

“He fucking did it!” Zack crows loud enough for Kim to hear.

Trini pulls the phone back from her ear in reaction. “Who did what, Taylor?”

“Jason!” The boy screams and Trini just pulls the phone fully away now, holding it in between her and Kim both. “He fucking _kissed Kathleen_!”

Kim lights up at Zack’s words, easily audible to both girls. She bounces a little on her feet smiling. Even Trini has to grin. On the phone Zack is still relaying details, now joined by Billy, who is occasionally popping in to add his two cents. Trini can only catch bits and pieces of it, but apparently, whatever Zack did, he did it 'like a _boss_.'

“That’s great, guys,” Kim says into the microphone.

“Kimmay?” Zack halts for a second before his voice takes a mischievous turn. “Oooh. You and Trini are still together, huh?”

Trini rolls her eyes. She knows that tone. “Yes, Zack,” she says tiredly. She can just _hear_  the devilish grin splitting his chiseled face in two at that.

She’s about to tell Zack to shove it and shut up, but Kim beats her to the punch.

“Yes, and actually, we’re in the middle of something, so if you’ll excuse us,” she says, grinning at Trini. “Tell Jason good luck, and Billy, you better be driving!” She hangs up the call before either boy on the other line can respond.

“Looks like the Rangers are two for two tonight,” Trini says, pocketing her phone. The screen flashes 12:16. She needs to get going, is already going to have to haul ass to make it back before curfew. But she’ll be damned if she misses a shot for a little more of this.

In front of her, Kim is still grinning. “Must be something in the air.”

“Or on the trees,” Trini adds leaning back in.

“Must be,” Kim breathes before kissing her again. Trini’s glad the boys had fun, but as her curfew looms closer and Kim’s lips slant just _so_  against her mouth, their fingers still clasped in her pocket, the angel awkward and bent, she’s never been happier to have skipped out on a party.


End file.
